Faust Poem by gershon hepner

Faust



Rossini, Mozart, Mayerbeer were three
composers Goethe thought might well compose
“Faust” music. Shame he didn’t live to see
how Faust was damned by Hector Berlioz.

Another name on Goethe’s list
might have been Wagner’s father-in
law, pianist-composer Liszt,
who just like Faust supported sin.

Inspired by the ballet music of Gounod’s “Faust, ” broadcast on KUSC on January 7,2010. Alan Chapman pointed out that Goethe expressed the view that Mozart, Rossini and Mayerbeer might all have written great music for it and strangely opined that the greatest music for “Faust” was Gounod’s famous and extremely popular opera, strangely forgetting about the infinitely more inspired “Damnation of Faust” by Berlioz.

When informed of the omission Alan Chapman wrote to me: Berlioz had company. I also omitted Liszt's Faust Symphony. As a result, I wrote a second verse:

Another name on Goethe’s list
might have been Wagner’s father-in
law, pianist-composer Liszt,
who just like Faust supported sin.

1/7/10

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